Distribution Sub-Group (2012) Paper No. 34 – Primary FSM indicator criteria update
This discussion paper has been written by officials of the Welsh Government. Ministers
have not had an opportunity to comment on the contents. Exemplifications of changes
are provided simply to inform discussion by DSG members. They are not Welsh
Government proposals or statements of Government policy for or against changes.
Revenue Support Grant – Proxy for Education Deprivation Indicator
Free School Meals Data Definitions
Nursery Provision in Wales

Executive Summary;
1. At the DSG meeting on 12th June 2012, DSG requested clarification on the statutory responsibilities on
local authorities regarding nursery provision in order to take a decision regarding the age range to be
used for the Free School Meals definition within the ‘Nursery & Primary Teaching and Other Services’
IBA.
2. This paper sets out these responsibilities & seeks the agreement of DSG to proceed with a new
proposal, not too different from option (III) presented in DSG (2012) Paper 26, but to exclude those
pupils eligible for FSM enrolled at Nursery 1 (“N1”) year group which would be consistent with the other
pupil indicator used within the formula, as well as covering those statutory age requirements.
3. To note, it has been clarified that pupils enrolled at “N1” year group in PLASC represent children who
are age 2 at the start of the school year and who turn 3 in that school year. Some schools/ authorities
may take the decision to enrol children before their 3rd birthday, but this would be a local decision.
Therefore for consistency it is recommended to include those pupils eligible for FSM enrolled within a
nursery/ primary maintained setting from Nursery 2 year group onwards.
4. The final proposal for the new definition of the Primary Free School Meals indicator would be to
include ALL pupils eligible for FSM, whether full or part time, enrolled in any maintained nursery
or primary school attending year groups N2, Reception or Year groups 1 onwards.

Related Papers/ Documents;
5. Distribution Sub-Group (2012) Paper No. 26 – This paper made proposals regarding the primary FSM
indicator to be used within the 2013-14 settlement, and criteria were agreed following investigations into
statutory nursery provision by local authority. Distribution Sub-Group (2012) Paper No. 35 compliments
paper no. 26 presented at DSG 12th June 2012.

Current Definition;
6. The RSG currently uses the numbers of pupils eligible for Free School Meals from the latest School
Census (PLASC) data collection as a proxy for the additional need to spend for Education in relation to
pupils from a deprived background.
7. This indicator is used in the following IBAs within the RSG:
 Nursery and Primary School Teaching & Other Services;
 Secondary School Teaching & Other Services;
8. The secondary indicator is agreed currently fit for purpose, although there is the need to amend the
primary indicator based on statutory and consistent methodologies. The secondary indicator is not
discussed in this paper.
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Distribution Sub-Group (2012) Paper No. 34 – Primary FSM indicator criteria update
9. The 2012-13 Settlement only counted full-time pupils in the definition for the primary indicator. The pupil
numbers are taken from the PLASC forms as enrolled into “year groups” not by age. These year groups
are categorized as follows:





Nursery 1 (N1): primarily children who are age 2 at the start of the school year and who turn 3 in that
school year;
Nursery 2 (N2):.primarily made up of children 3+;
Reception: primarily made up of children who are 4 as at 31st August (at the start of the school year)
and who will turn 5 in that school year:
Years 1 to 6; and
Year 7: These numbers are small, although may represent pupils who may have repeated a year
and held back from secondary school.
10. DSG (2012) Paper 26 highlighted that the previous definition used for primary school pupils in the RSG
only captured full-time pupils in ‘Maintained Primary School Settings’ and as such any pupils attending
‘Maintained Nursery Schools’ were not captured in the data.

Decisions taken to date;
11. At the DSG meeting on 12th June 2012, DSG agreed that in line with DSG principles that the Settlement
should not be influenced by local authority policy decisions, the FSM definition should be broadened to
incorporate:



All pupils within the agreed year groups irrespective of full-time or part-time status (e.g. part-time
pupils should be included for 2013-14 onwards);
All pupils within the agreed year groups irrespective of setting (e.g. pupils in maintained nursery
school settings should also be included in the definition)
Statutory Responsibilities;
12. Local Authorities statutory responsibilities for nursery provision are set out in ‘The Education (Nursery
Education and Early Years Development and Childcare Plans) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations
2005’.
13. This states that local authorities in Wales are under a duty to secure sufficient provision of
nursery education for their area for children in the term following their third birthday.
14. This is different to the definition for Statutory School Age which is the age at which a child is required
to be in school. The law does not require a child to start school until the start of the term following
the child’s fifth birthday.
15. Where the admission authority for a primary school offers places in reception classes to parents before
their children are of compulsory school age, they must allow parents the option of deferring their child’s
entry until later in the same school year. The effect is that the place is held for that child and is not
available to be offered to another child. The parent would not however be able to defer entry beyond the
beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday, nor beyond the academic year for which the original
application was accepted.

FSM Definition for the 2013-14 Settlement;
16. As stated above, the Local Government Settlement uses the Free School Meals dataset as a proxy for a
local authority’s additional need to spend for pupils from deprived backgrounds. Following the DSG
meeting in June 2012, the only outstanding decision to be taken in respect of this dataset was the age
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Distribution Sub-Group (2012) Paper No. 34 – Primary FSM indicator criteria update
range, subsequently nursery ‘Year Groups’, for the FSM indicator for the ‘Nursery & Primary School
Teaching and Other Services’ IBA.
17. After looking into the Nursery figures used in derivation of the other indicator on ‘pupil numbers and
modelled nursery school numbers’, the criteria is based on year groups Nursery 2 (N2) onwards (N1
pupil numbers are excluded from any calculations). Therefore, excluding those pupils in Nursery 1
(N1) from the FSM indicator definition is consistent with the other pupil based indicator used in
the same formula.
18. As authorities have a duty to secure sufficient nursery provision for their area for children in the term
following their third birthday, the LGFP Settlement Team feel that a new proposal to include all pupils,
whether part time or full time from all nursery and primary maintained schools starting at Year group “N2”
onwards (see paragraph 9 for definitions) is the correct year group to proceed with for the 2013-14
Settlement onwards.
19. This proposal was not exemplified in DSG 2012 Paper 26. Annex A provides the exemplification for
DSGs reference.
20. Table 1 shows the actual difference in the numbers of pupils eligible for FSM under the new criteria
against what was used for 2012-13 settlement calculations.
21. Table 2 provides the exemplification to show what the isolated effects would have been on the 2012-13
settlement had we used the new definition.
22. As the RSG uses the PLASC dataset, it will only incorporate children who are attending nursery
education within an authority as at the PLASC Census date in January of the given year.
23. Proposal for Primary FSM indicator: Full & Part time Pupils, attending a nursery or Primary
maintained school, eligible for FSM from the PLASC return, will be counted within the definition
of the primary FSM indicator as those enrolled in Nursery 2, Reception and Years 1-7.
24. Action: DSG are asked to confirm that they are content with this proposal and for the decision to
be included in the DSG report.
Local Government Finance and Performance
Welsh Government
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Distribution Sub-Group (2012) Paper No. 34 – Primary FSM indicator criteria update
Annex A
Table 1. The difference in actual FSM pupil counts when excluding N1s and including pupils irrespective of full/ part time status
Unitary authority
Data used for
2012-13 Final
Settlement (a)
Exemplification
for 2013-14 (b)
Difference (b)(a)
% Share (a)
% Share
(b)
Difference
(share (b)-(a))
Isle of Anglesey
Gwynedd
Conwy
Denbighshire
Flintshire
Wrexham
Powys
Ceredigion
Pembrokeshire
Carmarthenshire
Swansea
Neath Port Talbot
Bridgend
The Vale Of Glamorgan
Rhondda Cynon Taf
Merthyr Tydfil
Caerphilly
Blaenau Gwent
Torfaen
Monmouthshire
Newport
Cardiff
988
1,366
1,469
1,503
1,875
1,957
1,212
700
1,844
2,750
3,824
2,659
2,642
1,488
6,036
1,255
3,702
1,595
1,444
705
2,604
6,001
989
1,372
1,469
1,504
1,877
1,962
1,221
720
1,848
2,742
4,159
2,659
2,662
1,545
5,804
1,327
4,097
1,604
1,447
705
2,607
6,006
1
6
0
1
2
5
9
20
4
-8
335
0
20
57
-232
72
395
9
3
0
3
5
1.99%
2.75%
2.96%
3.03%
3.78%
3.94%
2.44%
1.41%
3.72%
5.54%
7.71%
5.36%
5.32%
3.00%
12.16%
2.53%
7.46%
3.21%
2.91%
1.42%
5.25%
12.09%
1.97%
2.73%
2.92%
2.99%
3.73%
3.90%
2.43%
1.43%
3.67%
5.45%
8.26%
5.28%
5.29%
3.07%
11.53%
2.64%
8.14%
3.19%
2.88%
1.40%
5.18%
11.93%
-0.03%
-0.03%
-0.04%
-0.04%
-0.05%
-0.05%
-0.02%
0.02%
-0.04%
-0.09%
0.56%
-0.08%
-0.04%
0.07%
-0.63%
0.11%
0.68%
-0.03%
-0.03%
-0.02%
-0.07%
-0.16%
Wales
49,619
50,326
707
100.00%
100.00%
0.00%
(a) Total Number of Primary Full Time Pupils (including Years N1, N2, Reception up to Year 7) eligible for FSM as recorded on the 2011 PLASC return
(b) Total Number of Primary Full&Part Time Pupils (excluding those nursery pupil numbers in N1) eligible for FSM as recorded on the 2011 PLASC return
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Distribution Sub-Group (2012) Paper No. 34 – Primary FSM indicator criteria update
Annex A
Table 2. The exemplification of the 2012-13 SSA when using the amended FSM counts
£000s
Unitary authority
Isle of Anglesey
Gwynedd
Conwy
Denbighshire
Flintshire
Wrexham
Powys
Ceredigion
Pembrokeshire
Carmarthenshire
Swansea
Neath Port Talbot
Bridgend
The Vale Of Glamorgan
Rhondda Cynon Taf
Merthyr Tydfil
Caerphilly
Blaenau Gwent
Torfaen
Monmouthshire
Newport
Cardiff
Total Unitary Authorities
2012-13 Nursery and 2012-13 Nursery and
Primary School
Primary School
Teaching IBA (a)
Teaching IBA with
amended FSM (b)
Difference (c)- % Difference
(a)
(c)-(a)
22,758
39,368
32,634
30,682
48,631
42,663
41,952
22,502
40,097
59,769
70,717
43,765
43,973
40,365
79,004
19,025
59,816
22,058
28,406
26,450
46,746
98,803
22,736
39,346
32,599
30,648
48,590
42,625
41,939
22,518
40,060
59,690
71,183
43,702
43,944
40,424
78,476
19,115
60,384
22,035
28,377
26,434
46,690
98,670
-22
-22
-35
-34
-41
-38
-14
17
-37
-78
466
-63
-29
59
-528
90
568
-23
-29
-17
-57
-134
960,184
960,184
0
2012-13 Final
SSA (b)
-0.10%
-0.06%
-0.11%
-0.11%
-0.08%
-0.09%
-0.03%
0.07%
-0.09%
-0.13%
0.66%
-0.14%
-0.07%
0.15%
-0.67%
0.47%
0.95%
-0.10%
-0.10%
-0.06%
-0.12%
-0.14%
0
2012-13 Final
SSA with
amended FSM
(b)
Difference % Difference
121,165
215,775
191,534
174,332
242,941
213,180
235,313
129,694
211,192
318,266
385,849
243,199
228,401
205,294
417,032
103,009
310,669
127,279
159,910
136,237
245,316
534,624
121,143
215,752
191,498
174,297
242,899
213,141
235,298
129,711
211,154
318,185
386,328
243,135
228,371
205,356
416,488
103,102
311,254
127,255
159,880
136,220
245,258
534,487
-22
-23
-36
-35
-42
-39
-14
17
-38
-81
479
-65
-30
61
-544
93
585
-23
-30
-17
-58
-138
5,150,213
5,150,213
0
(a) Total Number of Primary Full Time Pupils (including Years N1, N2, Reception up to Year 7) eligible for FSM as recorded on the 2011 PLASC return
(b) Total Number of Primary Full&Part Time Pupils (excluding those nursery pupil numbers in N1) eligible for FSM as recorded on the 2011 PLASC return
Page 5 of 5
-0.02%
-0.01%
-0.02%
-0.02%
-0.02%
-0.02%
-0.01%
0.01%
-0.02%
-0.03%
0.12%
-0.03%
-0.01%
0.03%
-0.13%
0.09%
0.19%
-0.02%
-0.02%
-0.01%
-0.02%
-0.03%